Union criticizes continued city attention on pepper spray incident
The union that represents Champaign police issued the attached release on Wednesday.
While in public the Mayor expresses support for the police and is allowing Carter to be thrown under the bus on this issue, he joins in the meetings and pushes city staff to bring in and pay for more and more reviews because of the promises he made to a few people. If he wants discipline the officer, then just tell Carter to do it. Why pay to find someone to agree with you. His mind is made up, do it and stop playing politics. The more people you bring in that disagree with you(ISP and FBI) , the more you make the unions case. Hey Mayor, the cops and firefighters aren't buying it, they know you don't support them. Brown outs/closures, reducing officers, closing the front desk, your word is eroding like the Boneyard Creek at 5th and Hill.
Many of the rest of us "in the public" (i.e., the people that elect the people that employ you, and those whose taxes pay your salaries) CRITICIZE the CONTINUED USE of pepper spray.
Stop spraying pepper spray all over the place, and we taxpayers, and citizens of the United States, will quit COMPLAINING about you coppers spraying pepper spray all over the place.
How hard is it for two cops to detain a college kid who is jaywalking, even if he is with a group of 20 other people who are jaywalking that they aren't profiling.
Cops need to stop thinking that they are in control of our world. WE taxpayers are in control of our world. And WE taxpayers are sick of overweight, lazy cops spraying pepperspray all over the place and then arguing that it was necessary for their safety.
For crying out loud. There are muggings and all sorts of other criminal activity in Champaign that can't be corrected, yet our law enforcement is busy pepper-spraying students on campus who may have walked against the light. Seriously?
We taxpayers won't go away. And we won't shut up. Quit with the pepper spray already. Learn how to do your job without spraying people with that stuff.
Hmmm, correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think what you're trying to say is that you don't like the pepper spraying. Did you get pepper sprayed at you when you were a kid or something, that caused some kind of pepper spray phobia?
I guess we could do away with the pepper spraying, and go back the the good ole days of a nice, sharp baton blow to the lower back or the back of the knees. Ahh, those were the days, huh Mike?
Trying to pick a fight, eh? No, I've never been pepper-sprayed.
How about instead of pepperspray OR baton blows to the lower back we instead ask our lawmakers to get rid of the silly law that prevents citizens from legally videotaping officers who are on duty.
As they always tell us, "if you're not doing anything wrong, what's the problem with being videotaped?" If the cops aren't "doing anything wrong" why is it such a problem that they are videotaped while they work? Oh, maybe it's because they KNOW that they often do things they shouldn't and don't want there to be any evidence of it.
Seriously--there is no reason whatsoever that we citizens shouldn't be allowed to videotape police officers who are on duty. We pay them. They work for us.
I'm all for a secure society, but giving the mostly-uneducated police force total control over all of us with no repercussions for them when they do something wrong is completely ridiculous. They are public servants.
They don't want to be videotaped because they don't want to be criticized for their bullying. Plain and simple. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go spray some pepperspray in my face and then go to bed--I hear it makes one sleep better.
I'll take pepper spray over getting beat by the club or shot at with a rubber or real bullet any day of the week.
Then again, I guess I'd have to do something to put myself in that situation in order to have that happen now wouldn't I?
Seriously, what do we expect police to do? Hand out stickers at the end of every traffic stop that doesn't end horribly? Write our parents notes for them to sign when we as grown adults physcially assault them while they're at work?
I think it's good that they don't use MORE force, I imagine more force would most likely hold up in court and then where would we be. With the exception of that kid who was shot, we've had it pretty good around here as far as police go in my opinion, and for the record I have been through the justice system, several times, when I was younger. I have my beefs with it, but being older and having my own family to watch out for I understand, we NEED police! Are they always polite? NO! You wouldn't be either if you had to deal with rapists, wife beaters, drunks, and child abusers all day long, screaming obscenities, puking everywhere and trying to pick fights with you. HAVE SOME COMPASSION! Put yourselves in their shoes!
It's the men running around town beating people up, robbing people and raping women that we need to worry about. Let the police mace them if they need to subdue them. I'd like to start hearing about more effective suggestions for dealing with prospective criminals besides "start a police revue board". What on earth does that do to protect the local citizens from the increased crime in the area? To me the whole thing sounds like a vindictive waste of time. Let these guys do their jobs.
He is a good idea for all the police in Champaign. There are many people that feel they can perform your job without using any type of force, so why not let them. Next time the 911 call comes in of a large fight or similar such crime, just sit back and let it all play out. You can call the EMT’s in when it’s over to clean up the mess. You have no legal obligation to step in and put yourselves in harm’s way.
The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Warren v. DC that the police have no duty to protect any citizen not in custody, and cannot be sued for their failure to protect to step in and assist anyone.
Maybe the mayor or Steve Carter will get out of bed at 2 a.m. and deal with the issue.
That "statement" sounded like an angry rant. The correct way to refer to someone on first reference is by their full name and title, not "Carter." And as someone pointed out, starting a sentence in a formal document with "Guess it depends..." deflates any sense of professionalism that the message might have carried. The police are among the few members of this society with a license to batter, arrest, and kill a person, if necessary. Why can't they get used to the idea that they're going to be subject to a little more scrutiny than most?
Very unprofessional press release. It seems as if the union is getting tired of trying to come up with excuses for the Champaign Police officers. That cop waslooking for an excuse to abuse that man. Pepper spraying a guy for jay-walking? RIDICULOUS! PATHETIC even! Do you really need to pepper spray a guy that you CLAIM to be arresting (I didn't hear anything about being arrested on the video) for jay walking? Perhaps a violent offense, yes, but Jay walking...NO! And not just NO!...HELL NO!!!!! We do not need a police officer or police force that condones oe allows the behavior demonstrated on the video in question. We need police officers that realise their place as public servants. Servants to ALL in the public. It is not the place for the police to determine the guilt and therefore the treatment or punishment of any particuler person that interests them at any point in time. There is a reason why we have Judges on the payroll in this country. All in all, the bottom line is that it was not necessary to detain this man, let alone spray him with pepper spray for a non-violent offense.
The unprofessionalism of the rant/press release, the theme of wasting tax dollars on investigating the police, and the continued obsession over Martel Miller leads one to believe that this press release is written by your perpetual candidate for coroner: retired police officer Mark Medlyn. His calls into WDWS are exactly the same as this press release.
As for the actual content: if you got nothing to hide, then you won't mind more scrutiny/vindication. You just gotta love the FOP has finally identified what the real problem is with the June 5th arrest: "...who violated the admonition to keep the tapes confidential,..."
Now everbody just move along and quit looking at the police officer slamming the handcuffed Kid's face against the hood of the squad car at 11:53 on the tape.
Fire Department browning out, front desk closing, staff lay offs, and now this... Council Bill: "The purpose of this Council Bill is to authorize the City Manager to retain the services of outside experts in order to assist the City Manager in his response to a recent citizen complaint and to provide an overview and recommendations with respect to the Police Department’s “use of force” policies and review historically the Police Department’s “use of force” practices. The estimated cost for these services is $60,000 to $100,000." This continues to show the level of support or lack thereof, and waste this Mayor and Council allows. Put a stop to this nonsense now!
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